Red Wing
This is one of the best courses around, with some super twisty singletrack and pretty technical sections. Gus took out the Stairway climb, but there were a few super steep technical climbs that more than made up for it. Temps were in the 90's with dew points in the 70's so it was pretty sticky.

They did a mass start for sport which meant 93 riders all going at once. Needless to say there was a big bottleneck going into the first stretch of singletrack. I had the misfortune of being about 30 riders back. You had to come to a complete stop and wait for an opening to get into the woods. Even once that was accomplished it was wheel to wheel with the less experienced riders not being able to ride up the short, steep climbs. Eventually I got off and ran with my bike since it was faster than trying to ride behind these people. For the rest of the first lap I opened it up in the wider sections and tried to keep up the tempo in the singletrack. I made it down the sketchy ravine section fine (actually cleaned it for the first time ever). The climb out was new to me. Twisty, tight, steep, long, loose and rooty. Sweet! Unfortunately there was another traffic jam here, so it was cyclocross time again. I ran around the bike pushers and got back on without spiking the heart rate too badly. I made good progress along the off-camber section, but I took a bad line down the rocky, sandy downhill section. My wheels just slid through the sand and I drifted off trail into the woods and to the ground. No major damage, but it cost me some time. Got back on and came through the exit section of steep banked climbs.

The hose at the start/finish area provided a nice blast of coolness. I was feeling pretty good, so I popped it in the big ring and hammered through the grass section. I had managed to pass quite a few people, but it was hard to tell who was in your class with the mass start. Back into the singletrack, and I managed to reel in some more guys. I caught up to Ton and passed him and a few other guys on a climb. I saw Mark Consugar up ahead and caught a brief glimpse of Sean Nelson. A few minutes later, I saw Sean standing off to the side of the trail, then saw his pedal laying on the ground. Bummer. A little bit after that I saw Mark with a mechanical. Both guys DNF'ed. On the Crosstown section I reeled in Matthew on the climb and passed him, figuring he'd probably grab my wheel and pass me again shortly. Surprisingly I opened a gap and when I got the top of the climb I hammered across the field and down into the ravine. Made it through there without too much difficulty and came around for the final lap.

I kept the tempo up and passed a few more guys. There were some people behind me, but I had a pretty good gap. Now I just wanted to stay upright and not let anyone pass me. The trails switchback so much it's hard to judge how close you are to other riders. I started playing leapfrog with a singlespeeder who kept cursing his gear selection. I kept telling him he was crushing most of the field and to keep going strong. Down in the ravine some of the Peace Coffee boys were coming back into the picture, so I revved it up as much as I could on the climb out. Had a little trouble with some roots and had to run for it. Now I was behind one guy on the off camber section and had to bide my time to pass. I finally came around him on the last high-banked climb and also passed the singlespeed guy again. One guy ahead of me yet on the final climb to the finish. I sprinted around him since I wasn't sure if he was in my class or not and beat him to the line.

Ended up 3rd in my class, 16th overall. If not for my trip into the trees I would have had second for sure (only 30 seconds down). Best finish in the MNSCS ever. Finally got some hardware. Looking forward to Welch in 3 weeks.

Mankato
Lots of climbing and technical singletrack make this a fun course. It's usually super hot for this race, but this year the temps were in the low 80's making it a little less brutal. Climbing from the base of the ski hill to the top at the start, I passed a few riders on the way up to get into top 10. Inexplicably, I sketched out before the bridge and went down. I'd thrown my chain and by the time I got that fixed I had lost a minute or two, and lost contact with the lead group. I rode fast, passing the few riders who had just passed me. I was able to get around a few more on some of the technical climbing sections. Having had a few crashes last year on some of the switchbacks, I rode conservatively on the faster difficult sections.

I was able to reel in a few more on the big climb on lap 2. Then I started to have my usual lap 2 power fade. I was struggling but tried to keep a steady pace and keep hydrated. On the nasty hairpin on Mad Squirrel there was a rider in the middle of the trail fixing something, so instead of riding it I ran it and got in front of him. This turned out to be a good move as the two riders behind me tried to ride it only to be blocked by that guy. I was able to put a little more time into them on the climbs out of that section.

Coming back through the start/finish for the final lap the guys at the feed zone where telling me to hold my position because I was in 3rd or 4th place. I thought they must have had me confused with someone else, but was appreciative nonetheless. It's difficult to tell who is in your age group with such a large field, so you never know if you're passing somebody that really counts or not. I pulled back 2 more guys on the big climb and was able to recover quicker at the top. I settled into a good pace and had a better feel for the course by now. I was trying to catch a rider who was still visible about 100 meters ahead of me, and I was trying to hold off 3 riders about 50 meters behind me. This lap I was able to clean all of the climbs and keep the pace steady. I never caught the guy in front of me, but nobody passed me on that lap either. I ramped it up through the last wooded section and when I started down towards the finish line there wasn't anyone within striking distance behind me, so I eased into the finish. Ended up 5th, which is a personal best for me in the series races.

Solo Century
After not doing a hundred mile ride at all last year, I figured it was time. I've never attempted to do one solo before, but it sounded like a good idea. I used a combination of Google Pedometer and National Geographic Back Road Explorer to map out a route. It made it very easy to sketch out a general distance and then go back and tweak it.

It was already super hot and humid at 9:30 as I headed from my house towards White Bear Lake. Past Withrow on 7 to Manning then north to Chisago City. I missed a turn so I ended up riding through Lindstrom before hitting Hwy 25 (passing by the massive holiday weekend traffic jam). 25/3 took me all the way back down to Scandia where I stopped to refill my water bottles and grab a Coke. I rode down to 4 and contemplated wussing out on climbing Nason Hill. After I had gone through the tunnel and made my way down out of Marine I decided to go for it. I took it easy, stayed seated and kept my heart rate in the 160's (usually this is a 170-180 bpm climb for me, as I can never keep it mellow on a climb). Halfway up a deer casually crossed the road in front of me, watched me for a while and then sauntered off into the woods.

The climb was the easy part, because now the next 40 miles would be into the wind or a strong crosswind. This was about the time I wished I had some other riders to draft. I made my way over the rollers down to Square Lake, then over more of the same down Partridge and over to Stonebridge. The headwind and heat were really getting to me now. There was a little shelter on Mendel and the zig-zag back to Withrow, but after that it was pretty brutal. My computer read 94 degrees and I had about a 15mph headwind for the next 20 miles. After 80 miles, my legs felt good, it was mostly my neck and shoulders that were sore. I was back on familiar territory now, riding part of my normal training loop. I hit 100 miles about a block from home (man that software is accurate!).

100.26 miles in just over 5 hours, burning 3,350 calories. The obvious drawback to doing it solo is not having anyone to draft off of, so there's no rest from the wind. The nice thing about it is being able to maintain a higher, steady pace, and not having to make multiple stops. It was so much better making one short, 10-minute stop halfway through. It's hard to take 3-4 long breaks and then get back on the bike each time. I felt great that night and yesterday. I did a 25 mile recovery ride yesterday afternoon, and feel no worse for wear today. We'll see if any of that carries over into race day fitness. At any rate, I can cross that one off my cycling to-do list.

Racing
Afton Avalanche mtb race went ok. Didn't have a good start position, but made my up from the back to top 5 after the first few climbs. Had a good first and second lap, but faded in the heat on lap 3. I had top 5 but slowly drifted back to 9th. After 3 races I'm in 4th place.

State Championship Road Race went not so well. I arrived too late for the 4/5 race in the morning. So, I did the Masters 4/5 in the afternoon. I hadn't brought extra food since I was fueled up for the morning race, so I was already hurting at the start. Super sketchy race, with elbows flying and plenty of random braking. On the downhill on lap 2 we were doing 40-45mph. I saw a rider go down into the right ditch, his bike cartwheeling 10-15 feet in the air over the road and taking out another rider. Crazy. Lap 3 I was in decent position after the climb, but got blocked out and then cracked trying to bridge up to the group. Ran out of calories, and that was the end of my race.

Mankato is this Sunday, I'm sure it will be 100 degrees as usual.